‘Well, it is entirely too cold to collect acorns this afternoon, Elbert said. ‘I am used to 60 degrees and a light breeze and today it is in the ’20s,’ he continued. ‘Elbert…you know that we need to polish the silver tea set that my mother gave us and then attempted to call back to her possession,’ Evangeline noted. ‘It seems like yesterday that the giants were all over the forest and we had to be careful to not get stepped on,’ Elbert bemoaned. ‘And they all had a camera and they roasted their hot dogs and drank a lot of beer,’ Eskell noted. ‘I had a plentiful amount of the beer that they left behind in their half-consumed beer cans…I was in good spirits all through the summer and fall,’ Elois laughed. ‘I was afraid to take Bruiser out to do his business and had to be on the lookout for their humongous feet…at least you could hear them coming a mile away,’ Eskell smiled. ‘As usual, the humans are not aware of our existence as they never look down and certainly do not focus on their environment,’ Evangeline said. ‘A little girl picked me up one day and looked at me with her saucer eyes for some time…and then she set me down under a leaf and ran off to enjoy her family picnic,’ Eskell said. ‘I almost peed my pants, he proclaimed!

Do you remember our days in Eldorado…when we lived in the Orpheum Theatre,’ Elbert asked his family? Nothing could stop us then…we had all of the popcorn that we could eat and Coca-Cola and our fill of free movies,’ he continued to reminisce. ‘It was cool in the summer and warm in the winter and only the occasional mouse to share our food with,’ Evangeline laughed. ‘I remember when Billy B. and Neva J. and Jane and Debbie and Chet took us home with them for Christmas and we had such fun,’ Elois said with a wistful gaze. ‘Winter was fun at Neva J.’s and Billy B.’s house…they had Neva J.’s Famous Coffee Cake and Roast Beast and Merlot to drink…and homemade divinity too,’ Elbert reminisced. ‘Neva J. had purchased us some doll’s beds from a Doll House Factory and we slept in the New Room which was resplendent in red and black. ‘I was so startled when on the first morning of our stay with them…Neva J. hollered for us to, ‘Hit the deck your rubbernecks,’ said Eskell.

‘I miss Eldorado…Neva J. and Billy B. believed in us…and thus they saw us…we were as real to them as we are to each other,’ Evangeline commented in little more than a whisper. ‘I remember Billy B.’s good friend Steve coming each Christmas…he joked with me and called me, Little Man, and he said that he was coming to the woods when we returned home to visit,’ Eskell said with a sigh.

‘We are a bit hidden from the humans…don’t you think, Elbert asked? ‘Yes, not everyone has time for Gnomes…